r

THE REAL ISSUE-UNION OR DISUNION.

LETTER

,^

HON S. S. MARSHALL.

PARTIES AND POLITICS OF THE'DAY,

THE FREEMEN

NINTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS.

WASHINGTON;
PRINTED AT THE UNION OFFICE.

1856.

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THE REAL ISSUE-UNION OR DISUNION.

Fellow-citizens : We are rapidly approaching the close of the
most extraordinary session of Congress known to the history of our
country, and the most important epoch in our country's destiny.

I know that you have not been indifferent spectators of the scenes
transpiring around us. I know that with that love of the Union which
is among the most cheri.-^hed sentiments of your hearts, you have heard
with deep solicitude those wild cries of disunion, anarchy, and civil
war which have been sweeping over your beautiful prairies and carry-
ing consternation to the remotest corners of the republic.

Fellow-citizens, as your representative, I occupy the position of a
sentinel for you here, and it is your right to have a faithiul report from
me, in regard to everything pertaining to your niterests ; and as far
as my humble abilities will enable me to give such report, you shall
have it. 1 hope to see you all soon, but the condition of my health
will not permit me to be among you as soon as I could desire, and I
am therefore called upon, by an imperative sense of duty, to address
you now in this manner. On almost any other occasion, I would say
something in regard to my own course as your representative, but
when the destiny of a great nation is at stake, the conduct, or even
the fate, of so humble an individual as myself is a matter of very small
moment. I will therefore i'or the present leave my official acts to be
interpreted and explained by the official records of the House of which
I am a member.

You know that I am not a bitter partisan, and would not intention-
ally deceive you or give the alarm of danger when 1 know there was
none. Always a Democrat, I have often met the old Whig party in
honorable combat, but never with denunciation of its virtuous members
or patriotic purposes, and have always numbered in its rttnks many of
my most cherished friends. But the clarion voice of Clay is now
hushed in the silence of death, and the lofty brow of Webster has
bowed to the tyranny of the grave. The same earth which gave a
final resting-place to Jefferson, and Madison, and Jackson, has also
taken to her bosom all that was mortal of the gallant Clay, and the
" God-like" Webster. The flag of tfie party which they loved no
longer floats on the field of combat, new and fearful issues have been
sprung upon us, and the public mind is agitated, and rocking to and
fro like the surging billows of the ocean. Coming, as I do, from the
most conservative portion of this great country, and representing a
people not infected with the fanatical or sectional sentiments of the
extremes, either north or south, with hearts large enough aid patriotic
enough to embrace every portion of our common country, I have been
enabled to keep my mind free from sectional excitements, and to look

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calmly and dispassionately into the very face of these new parties,
which, born in a night, have come forth iuU grown and armed at all
points for the fearful battle in which we are just engaging.

THE CONSTITUTION AND UNION IN DANGER.

I have taken a calm view of the field of conflict, and I now say to
you dehberately, that m my judgment tlie American people, in Novem-
ber next, will be called upon to decide the most important issue ever
submitted to a free people ; an issue pregnant with the most momen-
tous consequences, and involving in its determination the destinies of
our country, and to a great extent of the whole human race. This
issue is nothing less than the preservation of the Union with its present
countless blessings, and its glorious promises lor the future, or disunion
with civil war, rivers of fraternal blood, demoralization, crime, and
ultimate utter ruin which must inevitably follow in its train. The
depositing of your votes in the ballot box in November next, will there-
fore be the most important act of your whole lives.

The time was, fellow-citizens, when, in the country where you and
I live, the word disunion was never heard; or if mentioned, it was in
that solemn, subdued tone in which we would speak of some fearful
spectre, or of some awful impending calamity, whose approach we
could not anticipate, and whose depth we could not fathom. The
sound grated harshly on our ears like the green clods falling on a
mother's grave, or the death knell of our childhood's fondest hopes. As
the Romans would not admit that any man could become so lost to all
sense of honor and manhood as to shed the blood of the father that
gave him being, and would not, therefore, by law provide any penalty
for this impossible crime, so we believed that no man enjoying the
blessings of our free government could ever turn traitor to his country;
but unfortuaaiely that day has passed. The time looked forward to
by Washington with such deep soHcitude is upon us.

We cannot evade, we cannot postpone the issue ; we can no longer
refuse to hear the word of evil import. It mingles in our conversa-
tions; fills our newspapers ; is heard in our halls of legislation; and
has invc'ided the holy sanctuary of the pulpit. It intermingles in our
dreams, and interrupts our slumbers. It has become a living spectre;
walks forth cSt noonday in all our streets and highways, and is wor-
shipped as a God by thousands. We are compelled to look it in the
face, and we must arouse ourselves like men, and crush this monster, if
we would preserve this glorious heritage of Ireedom.

THEUE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A PARTY AMONGST US HOSTILE TO THE GOV-
ERNMENT.

It cannot be denied that there has always existed in this country a
party of men bitterly hostile to our institutions, and who at any time
would rejoice to see the sun of our liberties go down drenched in blood.
They have rarely avowed their real sentiments and purposes, but their
foot -prints have always been known to the watchful patriot.

In our struggle for independence, these men, as tories, engaged in
open war against their own country, and were the most cruel and
bloody persecutors of our patriot fathers. When independence was
achieved, this class of men yielded a sullen and reluctant obedience;
but have either openly or covertly ever since carried on their schemes
to ruin our country, or, at least, to cripple its resources. And with this
main object in view, they have, without scruple, seized on ever}^ pre-
judice, appealed to every passion, and resorted to every possible pre-
tence and sophism to effect their purpose. They have with unceasing
hostilit}^ opposed every measure lending to the expansion of our coun-
try, or the development of its resources. They threw obstacles in the
way of the original Union ; tried to confine this republic to the limits
of the old thirteen States ; have opposed every single acquisition of
territory; and on one pretence or another have opposed every attempt
to organize and open up new territories for the benefit and settlement
of our hardy pioneers.

These modern "shrieks for freedom" and cries of no m_ore slave
territory are mere instruments to arouse and inflame the anti-slavery
sentiment of the North, and thus carry out their long-cherished pur-
pose by driving an excited and misguided people to their own destruc-
tion.

THIS DISUNION PARTY ALWAYS HOSTILE TO THE INTEREST OF THE

WEST.

These leaders who manufacture this excitement and keep up this
dangerous agitation have no sympathy with the slave, and would with
the same avidity advocate slave extension if they could thereby effect
their ultimate object. Early in the history of our country, Virginia,
with that liberality and self-sacrificing devotion to the Union for which
she has been distinguished, gave to the federal government that mag-
nificent territory now constituting the great States of Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin — now the very garden spot of our
country. At the commencement of the present century, thousands of
hardy pioneers had braved the dangers of savage warfare, and already
pitched their humble homes in this territory, and laid the foundations
of those great and growng States. But although a young giant, the
" Northwest" was a giant in fetters. Railroads were then unknown,
and the mouth of the Mississippi was in the possession of a foreign
power, so that the West had no outlet to the ocean for their produce in
any direction. It became apparent to all intelligent men that Louisi-
ana, including New Orleans and the mouth of the Mississippi, must be
purchased, or the settlement and growth of the great West abandoned.
But as soon as this was proposed, those same New England shops that
now manufacture abolition and disunion sentiments and arguments for
the whole country, then opposed this acquisition with relentless hos-
tility. Not because it was slave territory, but distinctly on the ground
that if the people of the West were allowed a free access to the Gulf
of Mexico, the emigration thereby induced would depopulate their
country, and the business thus opened up would cripple the commerce

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( f New England. The pioneers who are still living among you will
remember with what deep solicitude they then looked to the federal
government, and implored its assistance. Then, when the young West
needed a friend, and was struggling for its very existence, those same
philantropists, who have now so much love for Kansas that they will
not permit her people to frame their own institutions for fear they may
hurt themselves^ grasped us by the throat and would have strangled us in
our swaddling clothes. But the gallant South came to our rescue, and,
with Jefferson at their head, Louisiana was acquired, the fetters struck
from western commerce, and a career of prosperity opened up to us
unexampled in the history of the world.

THEIR TREASON DURING THE LAST BRITISH WAR — THE CGMMENCE
MENT AND PROGRESS OF ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION.

Again, in (>ur last war with Great Britain, these men sung songs oi
joy over the victories of the enemy — burned blue lights to direct him to
our shores, and opened up a tre'asonable correspondence for a disrup-
tion of the confederacy.

In IS^O, when Missouri came to the door of the Union with a
plan ot government, framed in strict compliance with the Federal
Constitution, these promoters of discord first tried the game of anti-
slavery agitation, and raised the cry of no more slave States. With
joy they discovered that they had at last found an inexhaustible mine
of agitaiion, and a spot where they might hope to make a breach into
the (A)n.-tiLution. With fiendish triumph they looked upon the storm
they had raised, which almost overwhelmed our gallant ship of State.

But the patriots of that day came Ibrth in their might, and cast oil
upon the troubled waters. The storm was assuaged, and the traitors
were driven back to their kennels, overwhelmed with disgrace. They
were defeated but not subdued. In due course of time Texas, having
achieved her independence, came with a magnificent territory, sufficient
to make a great empire in itself, and humbly asked permission to place
her lone star amid the cluster that already illuminated our constellation.
Any other nation on earth would have seized the proffered boon with
avidii}^ Not so with us. Here was another opportunity for a new
anti-slavery agitation, and it was thrown upon the country without hesi-
tation. The genius of discord was invoked, and Texas came into the
Union only after a fierce and bitter political struggle. Then the Mexi-
can war supervened, and while our gallant soldiers. Whig and Demo-
crat, from the North, South, East and West, were bravely carrying the
flag of our country to victory and gloiy, these men denounced them as
murderers ; endeavored to prevent supplies to feed them ; and urged
the Mexicans to " welcome them with blood}? hands to hospitable
graves." When peace was again about to return, and our government
demanded New Mexico, Utah, and California, as an indemnity for the
expenses of the war, it was opposed with relendess hate by this class
of men, Vv'ho denounced these countries as utterly sterile and worthless,
and attempted at all stages to embarrass our government with their

Wilmot Proviso. But peace returned lo our people, and with it came
these priceless acquisitions.

COMPROMISE MEASURES OF 1850.

But agitation did not cease with the termination of that war. It be-
came necessary to organize these Territories and throw the shield of the
Constitution around their enterprising pioneers. The ever fruitfal
hobby was again resorted to and the public mind was lashed into fury
by unscrupulous demagogues. The storm that raged appalled ev-ry
patriot in the land. Our gallant ship of State, rocked and reeled by the
fury and violence of the storm, needed all the wisdom and experience
of the most skilful pilots to bring her to a port of safety. Clay, the
leader and idol of his party, had retired from public life to the shades
of Ashland, to prepare for the finil summons which the greatest must
obey. Old age had crept upon the gallant Kentuckian, and the blood
coursed languidly through his veins. But his heart knew no change,
and still beat with all its youthful ardor for the country he so much
loved. The nation called and he turned his back upon the quiet home
of his affections, and dragged his aged hmbs iar awa}^ to the Federal
capital, and spent the last energies of his Hfe in once more restoring
peace to a distracted country.

There was at the same time, far away on the shores of our northern
lakes, another noble statesman, for many years the acknowledged leader
of the other great party of the country. He too had nearly lived out
the time allotted to man ; and his limbs were stiffening with age. But
tlie country demanded his services, and Cass, too, obeyed the summons.
These great men had been political rivals fjr a third of a century, and
each had given and received many a gallant blow. But their country
was in danger, and they forgot party, forgot rivalry, ambition, every-
thing but their country. Each knew the other to be a true patriot, and
in the warm embrace of those noble old men the issues and animosities
of the Whig and Democratic parties were buried forever.

Around these leaders gathered all the patriotic of the land. They
held grave counsel for the safety of the republic. They felt that the
day of temporary expedients had gone by. They had proved impotent
for crushing the serpent that had crept into our Eden. It was neces-
sary now to strike at the root of the cancer that was eating into our
body politic. They felt that there must have been some error in the
former measures of pacification, or the storm vt'ould not so soon and so
often return upon us with renewed violence. They took up the Con-
stitution, the charter of the Federal authority, to see what power they
had to legislate upon this subject of slavery. They scrutinized it,
word by word, and paragraph by paragraph, but they found not a
single word which directly or indirectly even tended towards a grant
of power to establish, abolish, or regulate slavery. They then read
the history of the formation and adoption of the Constitution, and found
that it was established for certain well known and well defined pur-
poses, and that the regulation of slavery was not one of them. The
States had all the power necessary, without any confederation, to regs-

10

now indebted for the giant proportions and dangerous prominence of
this new party.

In an evil hour to our country, a man of perverted talents and vicious
morals — an outcast of prisons and of society — in the darkness of night,
and shut out from the ot)servations of men, gathered around him his
discontented and equally vicious companions, and there planned a se-
cret organization, bound together by dreadful, unchristian, and uncon-
stitutional oaths, with a ritual appealing to the lowest prejudices of our
nature. It is beyond all question the most dangerous instrument ever
invented for the destruction of the liberties of a free people. It ap-
pealed to every passion and prejudice, adapted itself to every shade of
opinion, and promised the realization of ever*/ hope. To the disap-
pointed and disaffected Democrat, it promised revenge and promotion ;
to the Whigs, a powerful and irresistible reorganization of their old party;
to those who still retained in their hearts the old aristocratic leaven,
which claims superiority on account of family or birth-place, it prom-
ised a patent of nobility, protected by the sanctions of the law ; to the
bigoted and intolerant, a harvest of religious persecution ; to those who
really believed the foolish stories about the dangers to our country
from that petty and powerless prince — 'the Pope of Rome — it promised
protection and security; to the wind-galled, spavined, broken-down
politician, it held out the hope of offices and emoluments.

The secrecy and mystery of its movements attracted crowds to its
meshes, and thousands entered these dens, influenced by no higher motive
than that which led our mother Eve to commit the act that brought sin and
death into our world. To all it promised immunity from censure or
observation, for all were bound not to tell the truth in regard to its
membership, its organization, or its objects. All were told that they
would be tree to withdraw at any time ; but, like the fly which ven-
tures into the spider's web, once within Its meshes, escape was almost
impossible. It inaugurated a system of falsehood, deceit, and fraud,
and struck down the first principles of manhood and of morals. Free-
born, frank, manly citizens, decoyed into these dens, emerged from
them with their souls in fetters, and a padlock upon their lips. They
entered patriots and came forth they knew not what, and bound to
obey the decrees of they knew not whom.

THE KNOW-NOTHING PARTY BECOMES AN ALLY OF ABOLITIONISM.

Whether the disunion Abolition leaders assisted in planning this or-
ganization or not is not known, but Satan himself could not have in-
vented an Instrument more fuited to their purposes. They immedi-
ately seized upon it, and, with deceitful professions of their nationality
and devotion to the constitution, they went forth on their mission of
treason conquering and to conquer. The Democratic leaders saw the
danger, and boldly denounced the movement. Deceived by pro-
fessions, a large party in the South, forget'lng that noble Independence
and free-spoken manhood for which the}' had been distinguished, en-
tered the secret dens and united with this northern host ni their war-

11

fare on the only party that presented a barrier to the inroads of sec-
tionaUsm upon the conslilution.

The growth of this oath- bound organization was beyond all prece-
dent, and enough to appal the stoutest heart. With the machinery of
grips, and signs, and passwords, and dark lanterns, its march was
noiseless and imperceptible. It stole upon us like a thief in the night-
time, and decoyed our young men into its haunts, and bound them to its
behests. Once withdrawn from their old party ties, they soon lost
their nationality, and were easily moulded to the purposes of their new
leaders, and throughout the whole North, at least nine out of ten, who
were entrapped into these lodges, and have adhered to them, after
passing through the Know-nothing crucible, came out avowed AboU-
tionists or Black RepubHcans. All will remember the pohtical strug-
gle of IS.'^.^ throughout the northern States. One by one the national
men of the North fell before the blows of this secret foe; and, ever
and anon, as these true men were struck down, would come from
the South a shout of triumph, and the light of their bon-fire rejoicings,
at these victories of the " Great American party." But the present
Congress convened, and the cloven f)ot could no longer be concealed.
Out of over ninety Know-noihings elected to the present House of
Representatives from the free States, all, (save some half a dozen,)
including our " Union-sliding" Speaker, stood forth open, avowed Black
RepubHcans, united in cin unholy crusade against the institutions of
fileen States of this confederacy. And thus, by the aid of this secret
machinery, and, strange as it may seem, whh the co-operation and
sympathy of southern men, have these disunion- Abohtionists been able
to build up the present Black Republican party, which, with uncouth
howhngs, are endeavoring to pull down the pillars of this temple of
liberty, and involve us all in one common ruin. Without Know-nothing^
ism, Abolitionism was a dangerous element, but comparatively power-»
less for evil ; with it, it has suddenly attained its present giant growth
and defiant gait, which strikes terror to those most confident in the per-f
petuiiy of our institutions. Without Know-nothingism, this part} pre-
sented to our eyes a dark cloud in the far north, which caused d* ep
solicitude to every patriot. By the aid of this secret machinery, thi^
cloud has grown, and swelled, and expanded, until it now covers th^
whole heavens, and behind it we see the fierce lightnings of disunionj
and hear the hoarse rumblings of civil war. Without Knownothingr
ism, the danger was kept at a distance and within bounds ; by its aid>
this danger has been brought to our very doors, and threatens the sudy
den destruction of all that is dear to us. ^

I now propose to estabhsh, b}'- evidence "strong as proof of Holy
Writ," first, that the object of the leaders of the Abolition "Republi-
can" party is a dissolution of the Union; and, secondly, that such dis,-
solution must inevitably result firom the success of that party. i

A DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION IS THE OBJECT OF THE ABOLITION,
"republican" PARTY.

On this point, it would be an easy matter to compile a volume ^
evidence, but what I here submit ought to satisly every freeman in the

12

land. The ablest of the anti-slavery agitators belong to the "Anti-
Slavery party," whose headquarters, for carrying on their operations,
are England and Massachusetts. These men do not attempt to conceal
their object; but, on the contrary, boldly proclaim it. A late number
of the London Telegraph, one of their British organs, says :

"There are now over three millions of human beings held in cruel bondage in the United
States. If, therefore, (he United States government deny, and is resolved to question the
right of Great Britain to her Central American possessions, we, the people of the British
empire, are resolved to strike off the shackles from the feet of her three millions of slaves
And there are those among us who will sanctify such a glorious cause."

The London News, speaking of the probability of a war between
Great Britain and the United States, says :

" The Aholitionisls would he iciih ns to a inan. The best of them are so Kcio."

In each number of one of the leading newspapers of this party, pub-
lished at Boston, there appears at the head of its columns, in promi-
nent characters, the motto — ^^ No union with slaveholders. The United
States constitution is a covenant loith death, and an agreement ivith hell.''''
And this, and several other papers published in that section, con-
stantly, openly, and boldly advocate an immediate dissolution of the
Union.

At the twenty-third annual meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-
Slavery Society, which convened at Boston on the 24th day of Jan-
uary last, it was

" Resolved, That the one great issue before the country is the dissolution of the Union, in com-
parison with which, all other issues with the slave power are as dust in the balance ; there-
fore, we will give ourselves to the work of annulling this covenant with death, as essential to
our own innocency, and the speedy and everlasting overthrow of the slave system."

On that occasion, Wendell Phillips commenced his speceh, in favor
of disunion, thus:

" I entirely accord with the sentiment of that last resolution. 1 think all ice have to do is to
prepare the ■public mind by the daily and hourly presentation of the doctrine of disunion. Events
which, fortunately for us, the government itself, and other partiss, are producing with unex-
ampled rapidity, are our (jest aid."

And this speech, continued in this spirit, was applauded throughout
by the audience there assembled.

On the 18th of Decsmber last, Mr. Giddings, in the House of Repre-
sentatives, made a speech on the organization ot the House, in which,
after heaping upon the South the most insulting epithets, and thereby,
as far as in him lay, weakening the bonds of the Union, in alluding to
a remark that the aggressions of the Black Republicans, if continued,
would lead to a destruction of the government, he turned to the south-
ern members, and, in a tone of bravado, remarked : " You shall not
dissolve ihe Union." "With unwavering determination we say to
those traitors, you shall not dissolve it." The Boston Liberator, of the
11th of January last, thus gently reproves the insincerity of his friend :

*' Mr. Giddings says truly, that the dissolution of the Union has long been held up as a
scare-crow by the South ; but when he adds that the friends of liberty have never demanded
it, his statement is untrue, unless he means to confine it to his pDlitical associates, who are but
compromisers at best We demand nothing short of a dissolution, absolute and immediate. The
Union which was founded by our fathers, was cemented with the blood of the slave, and
effected through his immolation."

On our last national anniversary — the 4th of July of the present
year — when the whole American people should have sent up one united

13

heart to the throne of God, in gratitude for the countless blessuigs
showered upon us, a mass meeting was held at Frammgham, in Mas-
sachusetts, at which several disunion speeches were made, and received
with applause. My space will not permit me to give extracts from but
two. Wm. Lloyd Garrison said :

"Let us, then, to-day, rejecting as wild and chimerical al! suggestions, propositions, and
contrivances for restraining slavery in i's present limits, while extending constitutional pro-
tection to it in fifteen of the thirty-one States, register our pledge anew before Heaven and the
world, that we will do what in us lies to effect the eternal over throio of this blood-stained Union,
that thus our enslaved countrymen may find a sure deliverance, and we may no longer be
answeiable for their blood."

J. B. Swassey, esq., who addressed the meeting at the same time,
said:

"In the old times, I was what was called an Anti-slavery Whig. But, Mr. President, it
has come to my mind like a conviction, that it is utterly in vain to hope that we can live under
such a government as this with our professions, and with our pretended love of freedom and
right. Why, the ihing is impossible. There cannot, in the nature of things, be any union
between the principles of liberty and slavery. There never has been any union, except by the
subjugation of the principles of liberty to those of despotism. For one, sir, I believe that the
duty of every trvx man is noio to take the ground of secession.''''

I have before me a copy of a petition now being circulated through-
out the New England States, asking for an immediate dissolution of the^
Union. The very last number of the Boston Liberator, speaking of
these petitions, says : "As the time for the adjournment of Congress is
rapidly approaching, the?-e should be no delay in forwarding^ to that body
the iietitions for the dissolution of the C/wion, whether the signatures to
them be many or few. But who that has a drop of free blood running
in his veins, or carries a virtuous heart in his bosom, or worships at
the shrine of liberty, will hesitate to affix his signature."

A writer in the National Anti-Slavery Standard, writing from New-
burg, on the Hudson, under date of May 28, says : " But I waste words.
In this fearful crisis one hope is left us — the hope that the people of the
North will see the jeopardy in which they stand, and will look disunion
calmly in the face. Let those of us who feel this wrong throw away
these miserable party divisions, and, hfting up our eyes to that Heaven
where Liberty, the daughter of God, stands forever by her Father's
throne, strike in her name, and but one blow."

I know it will be said tliat these are the sentim.ents of the ultra Abo-
litionists, and that those virtuous gentlemen, Seward, Greeley, Giddings,
Fremont, and company, do not intend to go quite that far. I implore you,
fellow-citizens,if you love your country, to hug no such delusive hope to
your bosoms. Those whose sentiments I have quoted see the inevitable
tendency of this anti-slavery agitation, and frankly avow their objects.
But these last-named are endeavoring to conceal their real purposes,
and, by exciting and misleading the masses, make ihem instruments
for their own destruction. The Garrison school and the Seward school
are identical in their objects, instruments, and results. They trim their
sails to the same winds, and will arrive at precisely the same port.
They sing the same song of " slave aggression," " slave oligarchy,"
"slave democracy," and "bleeding Kansas," and they sing it to pre-
cisely the same tune. Those who cannot see their identity are un-
worthy ol the freedom they enjoy. And they are not always success-

14

ful In withholding some expression of their objects. Indeed, we have
abundance of positive testimony on this point. And when we do get
a glimpse of their purposes, they are so malignant and bloody that we
shrink back from their contemplation with horror. It is manifest that
their plan is by constant abuse and insult — by reviling their people
and institutions — by never-ending opprobrium and aggressive agita-
tion— by taking possession of the federal government and administer-
ing it ibr their oppression to force the South to withdraw ; or if she
(still hoping for a better state of public opinion) continues true to the
Union, then they intend to take up the sword themselves and dissolve
it in blood.

Horace Greeley, the pilot of the disunion craft on which Seward is
captain, and Fremont, Bissell, Wentworth, Lovejoy, Giddings, and
company have taken passage, just before the passage of the Kansas
act, gave his command for agitation in these words :

" We urge, therefore, unbending determination on the part of the Northern members hostile
to this intolerable outrage, and demand of th m, in behalf of prace, in behalf of freedom, in
behalf of justice and humanity, resistance to the last. Better that confusion should ensue —
better that discord should reign in the national councds~l>etter that Congress should break up
in wild disorder — nay, better that the Capitol itself should blaze by the torch of the incendiary,
or fall and bury all its inmates beneath its crumbling ruins, than that this perfidy and wrong
should be finally accomplished."

Seward, who is the very life and soul of this party, as far back as
1848, in a speech made at Cleveland, s/x years before the passage of tJte
Ka?isas- Nebraska act, gave the world a very clear intimation of the plan
of operations which they are now carrying out. He says :

" Correct your own error, that slavery has any constitutional guarantee which may not be
released, and oug>'t not to be relinquished. Say to slavery, when it shows its bond (that is,
the constitution)' and demands its pound of flesh, that if it drav\s one drop of blood its life shall
pay the foifeit." * * * " Do ttll this, ai.d inculcate all this in the spirit of moderation and
benevolence, and not of retaliation and fanaticism, and you icill soon bring the parties of the
country into an effective aggression upon slavery."

Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, another active leader, in a lec-
ture delivered at Tremont Temple, Boston, last spring, says :

" Send it abroad on the winga of the wind that I am committed, fully committed, committed
to the fullest extent in favor of immediate and ■uncondilional abolition of slavery wherever it ex-
ists under the authority of the constitution of the United States."

And again, in a letter dated June 20, 1855, to Wendell Phillips, an
extract from one of whose disunion speeches I have given above, Wil-
son says :

" 1 hope, my denr sir, that we shall all strive to unite and combine all the friends of freedom,
that we shall forget each other's /auZ/s and short-comings in the past, and all labor to secure that
co-operation by which alone the slave is to be emancipated, and the dominion of his master
broken. Let us remember that more than thr.-e millions of bondmen, groaning under name-
less woes, demand that we shall cease to reproach each other, and that we labor for their de-
liverance."

I will now, without comment, give a few additional extracts from
speeches and writings of the leaders of the Fremont party out of
a large pile lying before me, and which is, day by day, accumulatmg
on my hands:

" The Unio7i is not worth supporfing in connexion with the South." — Horace Greeley.

" I look forward to the day vvhcn there shall be a servile insurrection in the South; when
the b ack man, armed with British bayonets, and led on by British officers, shall assert his free-
dom, and wajjeawar of extermination ag;»inst his master; when the torch of the incendiary
shall light up the toicns and cities of the South, and blot out the last vestige of slavery ; and

15

though I may not laugh at their calamity, nor mock when their fear cometh, yet I shall hail it
&sthe dawn of a political millenium."— Giddings.

"lam willinff, in a certain state of circumstances, to let the Union slide."— A'. P.Banks,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.

" In the case of the alternative being presented of the continuance of slavery or a dissolution
of the Union, I am for dissolution, and I care not how soon it comes." — Rufus P. Spaulding.

'• 1 detest slavery, and say, unhesitatingly, that I am for iia abolition by some m^ans, if it
should send all the pa' ty organizations in the Union, or the Union itself, to the devil." — H. M. Addi-
son, of the American Advertiser.

" Better disunion, belter a civil or a servile war, better anything that God in his providence
shall send, than an extension of the bonds of slavery." — Hvrace Mann.

" If peaceful means fail us, and we are driven to the last extremity, where ballots are use-
less, then well make bullets effective."— /fon. Erastus H pkins, of Massachusetts.

" On the action of this convention depends the fate of the country ; if the ' Republicans' fail
at the ballnt-liox, we will be forced to drive b >ck the siaveocracy with fire and the sword."
— General Webb in a speech in the convention that nominated Fremont, and which was receivtd tcith
'^tremendous applause."

"The remedy is to §o to the polls, and through the ballot-box repudiate the infamous plat-
form put for h at Tincinnati, and over which the black flag of slavery waves with characteristic
impudence ; and failing in this, do as our fathers did before us — stand by our inalienable rights
OMd drive back, with arms, those who dare to trample upon our inheritance." — General ffebb,
from an editorial in his paper.

" I sincerely hope a civil war may bust upon the country. I want to see American slavery
abolished in niy day. It is a legacy I have no wish to leave my chi dren. Then my most fer-
vent prayer is that England, France and Spain may speedily lake this slavery-accursed nation into
their special consideration, and when the time arrives for the streets of the cities of this ' land of
the free and home of the brave' to run with blood to the horses' bridles, u the writer of ihis be
living, there wMl be one heart to rejoice 't the retributive justice of Heaven." — W. 0. Duvall,
"cne of the leading Republicans of JSTew York."

" It is the duty of the North, in case they fail in electing a President and Congress that will
restore freed-m in Kansas, to revolutionize the government."— jResoZw<io?i o/ a JS/acfcjRejaw6Hcora
meeting in Wisconsin.

*' By all her regard for the generation.'? of the future, by her reverence for God and man, the
North is bound tn dissolve her present union with kidnappers and murderers, and form a North-
ern Republic on the basis of ♦ No union with slaveholders.' "—//e^^rJ/ C. Wright, writing from,
Waukegan, Illinois, under dale of June d(h, 1856, to one of the Xorlhern papers.

"Resolved, That the slavery advocates may prate to their heart*-' content about the glorious
Union, the mighiy advantages resulting therefrtim, the dangers to which it is exposed,°arising
from the agitation of the slavery question, and the incalculable rvils consequent upon its disso-
lution. We, as friends of human freedom, know no poliiiral union, and acknowledge none
but that based on the equality and brotherhood of man. Every other union is a shadow with-
out eub.^tance We, moreover, in all sinceriiy declare, that, if the Union of these United States
is built upon slavery, it is not worth pre.'erving. Yea, let it be dashed into a thou.^and
FRAGMENT.^, rather than serve as a perpetuation of wholesale r-bhery." — Resolution passed at a
Black Republican meeting at Farhvo's Grove, Mercer county, lUinvis.

Fellow-citizens, I will quote no farther on this point. It is at best a
soul-sickening duty that I am now performing. If you are not now
convinced that disunion and civil war are the objects of the leaders of
this Black Republican party, '^ you would not believe though one should
rise from the dead,^'

BLACK REPUBLICANISM verSUS THE BIBLE.

It is not enough that the constitution should be trampled under foot,
and this glorious Union broken up and destroyed. Everything sacred
and holy must be prostrated before the marcli of this mad fanaticism.
Some of this " truly patriotic body of men" have recently taken to
reading the Bible, and find, with horror and consternation, that it has
not come out as explicitly on the side of" Free Kansas" as they think
it should have done. They find that, although the Almighty had the

16

whole world to choose from, he selected Abraham, a slave-holder, as
the father of his chosen people, and, in a peculiar manner, favored Job,
another of the ancient " slaveocracy," and declared him to be a just
man, "one that feared God and eschewed evil." They find that when
the Saviour of man was on earth, although slavery existed all around
him, and although he denounced very freely the prevailing sins of the
world, he never even so much as intimated that slavery was of itself a
sin or a crime. They find that Paul returned a fugitive slave,
(Onesimus) to Philemon, his master, and was very explicit in his in-
junction to servants to be obedient to their masters. They find that
the Bible is down on underground railroads, and denounces death as
the penalty for man stealing ; but that neither the Almighty in hi&
laws delivered to Moses, nor the Saviour, nor his apostles, ever de-
nounced slavery as established by law as in itself a sin. All Black
Republicanism is in a perfect ferment at this awful discovery. It is
worse than the last bulletin trom " bleeding Kansas." A convocation
of the wise ones is had, and it is unanimously voted that the Almighty
was an ally of the "border ruffians"— Christ a " doughface"— Paul a
base tool of the "slaveocracy," and the Bible itself a campaign docu-
ment got up to secure the election of Buchanan and Breckinridge, and
to perpetuate this " infamous administration." This is not to be
tolerated, and a distinguished member of Congress from Massachusetts
proclaims to the world their decree in these words : "TAe times demand,
and ive must have, an ami-slavery Constitution, an anti-slavery Bible, and an
anti-slavery God.''''

They have already found their anti-slavery God in the person of
one Colonel Fremont, who, without one particle of political experience
or qualifications for the position, is put forward for the highest oSice in
the gilt of the American people. Their " anti-slavery constitution''
they will make as soon as they get the present one torn to fragments.
But the getting up of a new Bible is a more diflicult matter, and they
found it necessary to call a convention for that especial purpose. I
copy from a call published in the Boston Liberator, of March 21, 1856:

"world's bible convention

" We, tlie utideisigned, desirous of promotin? the improvement of our race, and fteHemng'
that the doctrine of the divine authority of the Bible is one of the greatest hindrances to its improve-
ment ; and believing further tiiat this doctrine has no foundation i7i truth, and that a fair and
thorough investigation would lead to its speedy and general abandonment, in\he all, in whatever
part of the world ihey may dwell, who feel an interest in the matter, to meet us in New York
in May next, and to adopt such measures as may be calculated to spread through the world
what may appear to be the truth on this important subject."

These proceedings need no comment. If any one is so far gone in
fanaticism as not to be shocked at them, his case is indeed hopeless.

DISUNION WOULD BE THE INEVITABLE RESULT OF THE SUCCESS OF THE
BLACK REPUBLICAN PARTY.

I should not, fellow-citizens, be dealing with you with that candor
which you have a right to expect, if I were to assert that the great mass
of the people whose minds have been lashed into this storm of fury and

17

fanaticism were at heart the enemies of their country, or desire its de-
struction. Indeed, I know that such is not the case. But the danger
to the republic is, therefore, none the less. No free government has
ever yet been destroyed by foreign enemies, as long as the people un-
derstood their true interests. It is only where demagogues have been
able to take advantage of the honest impulses of the masses, and de-
ceive and mislead them, that republics have ever fallen before the
assaults of their enemies. In this way have the fondest hopes of man-
kind, lime and again, been blasted; and it is in this way that the fair-
est fabric of human government ever vouchsafed to man, is now in
danger of being destroyed.

What is the American Union? Of what does it consist? And on what
is it based? It is not the parchment on which the constitution is written.
It is not made tip of any particular formula of words, and it cannot be
preserved by the power of the sword. The very life of the Union is in,
the hearts of the American people.' It is made up of mutual forbearance
and mutual concession — of honest, heartfelt love and affection for a
'Common country, and every portion thereof And this affection can-
not be maintained without equal and exact justice to the whole country,
and to every citizen. We must learn to attend to our own business,
and refrain from crimination and this ceaseless, insulting, maddening
•opprobrium heaped upon the institutions, customs, habits, and preju-
dices of our neighbors — our brothers and equal heirs to the blessings
■of our matchless government. Professions of devotion to the Union
amount to nothing when we show by our conduct that we are culti-
vating feelings and principles which must lead -to its destruction. The
*' Republican" convention, by a kind of solemn mockery, proclaim their
devotion to the Union, whilst one of the most able leaders of that party,
judging of others by his own feelings, declares, that "there is really no
ynion now between the North and the South, and he beh'eved no two
Jiations upon the earth entertained feelings of more bitter rancor towards
each other than these two nations of the republic."

Mr. Giddings, in the House, reviles the institutions of fifteen States
of this Union, tramples upon their habits, customs, and prejudices, and
insults their people, and then turns to their representatives, and ex-
■claims, "You shall not dissolve this Union," and threatens them with a
halter, if they attempt to withdraw. Senator Wilson, in the United
States Senate, denounces the South, but, at the same time, asserts that
there is no danger of secession; that the South "could not be kicked
out of the Union." The same senator, in a speech he made in the con-
vention which nominated Fremont, proclaimed, as the motto of the
party — " Freemen of the North have a right to govern this country."

Twelve of the thirteen original States of the Union were slave States,
■or recognised the existence of slavery among them. While the free
^ates were in the minority, all was peace, concord, and harmony, as
far a& this question was concerned. There was no complaint then of
aggression on the one part or the other. The South never attempted,
in any way, to intrude her institutions upon the people of the North;
but, on the contrary, her statesmen had commenced, in good faith, con-
sidering as to the best mode of loosening the letters of the slave, and of
2

18

finally effecting his emancipation. But no sooner had we obtained the
mnjoiit}', than this senseless and unholy agitation was commenced?
whicli has fastened the bonds of the slave, and conducted our country
now to the very brink of ruin. We have now a mnjority in both
branches of Congress, and have a population of seventeen millions of
citizens, while they have but six. With our prosperity and numbers»
we have become arrogant, overbearing, and insulting. And now the
monstrous doctrine is promulgated, that fifteen States of the Union are
to be wholly disregarded, and that the "freemen of the N^rth have a
right to govern this country." Govern it how? By cultivating senti-
ments of affection for every portion of our country? By eqjai and
just laws, and the recognition of the perfect equality of all the States of
the Union ? Not at all. On the contrary, they propose to govern it by
usurpation, and the power of numbers, and the sword. They propose,
under the plausible cry of, no more slave States, to shut out our breth-
ren of the South from those magnificent Territories acquired by their
blood and treasure as well as ours, unless they will abandon property
which has descended to them, and institutions under which their fathers
and themselves have lived and prospered. They propose, in fact, to
seize upon the federal government, and reduce the South to subjection*
They propose to maintain this Union just as the union between England
and Ireland is maintained — just as Great Britain attempted to maintain
the union between the mother country and her American colonies.

Fellow-citizens, I implore you to pause and ask yourselves whether
Our government can be preserved in any such way. The great body
of the .South love the Union, and would deplore a severynce of it as a
great public calamity. But will they submit to repeated wrong and
injustice? Will they submit to the drawing an odious distinction b&*
tween themselves and us? Will they submit to degradation? This
is an awful experiment for us to try.

Our ibrefathers loved the mother-country from which they sprung.
It required a series of aggressions to alienate their affections. But they
claimed to be freemen, and, in political rights, to be the equals of their
brethren on the other side of the Atlantic. They appealed to their
brethren, and "warned them of attempts made by the legislature to
extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over them." They "appealed to
their native justice and magnanimity, and conjured them by the ties
of common kindred to disavow these usurpations." But they were
" deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity." Our fathers saw th^
awfal perils before them. They were but a handful, scattered over a
large country without money, an army, navy, or munitions of wat.
They were contending with the most powerful nation on earth, but they
did not hesitate- They knew that they and their families and homes
might be swept from the face of the earth, but they preferred even that
to degradation. The consequence of these usurpations was along and
bloody war, and the dismemberment of the British empiie.

But it may be said that our aggressions upon our southern brethren
are not equal to those of the British government upon us. But look
at the facts. For what was it that our forefathers appealed to the God
•of battles for justice? The immediate burdens were in themselves

19

slight and trivial — an insignificant tax on tea and paper. It was the
principles involved — the attempt to discriminate and draw an odious dis-
tinction betvv'een them and their brethren on the other side of the Atlan-
tic which they would not, and, as freemen, could not submit to. Are
our brethren at the South weaker, or have they less at stake than our
forefathers had? Hundreds of millions of dollars are inseparably inter-
woven with this slave institution. The blood and treasure of the South
contributed equally with ours to the acquisition of our vast territories ;
but we tell them that, unless they will abandon their property and the
institutions under which they were raised, they shall not go into these
territories, and that we will possess and enjoy every foot thereof. And
this cry of " no more slave States " is not only for the present, but is to
extend to all future acquisitions. In short, we are to ask of the South
to help us fight our battles and contribute to the support of the federal
government, but that government is to be administered exclusively for
the benefit of the North and to foster her institutions. I ask you again,
fellow-citizens, will the South submit to this? Ought she to submit to
it? Can she submit to it without degradation?

Let us not be deceived by the cry that the South is weak, and wiU
not, therefore, risk a separation? Our fathers were less than three
piillions, and were apparently without resources. In the South are
six millions of as gallant, high-spirited freemen as ever trod the green
sod of our mother earth, with all the elements of a great nation. The
North, it is true, if united in a war of aggression, is greatly her supe-
rior in numbers and wealth. But if we are so lost to all sense of
honor as to attempt it, we never could reduce the South to subjection
to a government where she could not obtain justice. We might pos-
sibly stir up a servile war, desolate her now happy homes, and cause
her cities to run rivers of blood. It might be possible for us to sweep
her whole population from the earth ; but as long as one man was found
aJive, his arm would be raised to strike the invader, and an enlightened
World would applaud the act.

But if we could do so with perfect safety, will we ask our brethren
to submit to any such degradation ? On every battle-field of our country
the men of the North and the men of the South have marched side by
side as brothers to victory and glory. " They have poured their blood
into one common stream, and, locked in each other's arms, they filled
one common grave." And shall we now say to them we are holier
than they ? Shall we stand up in the market-places and thank God
that we are not as these publicans and sinners ? Are we purer than
Washington and Jefferson, Madison and Jackson, Calhoun and Clay,
all of whom were slaveholders, and lived in slave States? and will we
refuse to live under a government which recognises them and their
children as our equals ? Do we wish them to occupy towards us a
position similar to that occupied by Ireland towards England? I know
your hearts too well to have any doubts as to the answer.

20

THE AGGRESSIONS OF THE SLAVE POWER.

We of the North have our ears constantly stunned with the cry ol
" slaveocracy," " slave-oligarchy," " the aggressions of the slave
power," and like phrases. These will do very well "to tickle the ears
of the groundlings," and to frighten old women and children; but men,
who have the destinies of a great nation in their keeping, ought to in-
quire what is the foundation for the constant use of these insulting and
opprobrious epithets.

History will teach you that our connection with the South, instead
of an injury, has been the source of innumerable blessings to us.
When our struggle for independence commenced, and we needed a man
to lead our armies, Virginia, a "slave power," gave up her own great
son, one of the now much abused " slaveocracy," who, through a long
and perilous war, led our countrymen to victory and immortality.
When it became necessary to throw off our allegiance to the mother
country, the same " slave power" gave us Jefferson, another one of the
"slaveocracy," to draught the immortal Declaration of Independence.
When it became necessary to form " a more perfect government,"
the same "slave power" gave us Madison, another one of the
" slaveocracy," to draught our matchless Constitution. When our country-
was again invaded by a foreign foe, and our arms were disgraced in
the North, and our capitol burned, Tennessee, another "slave power,"
gave us her own Jackson, one of the " slaveocracy," who closed the
war in a blaze of glory, and wiped out our disgrace in the foeman^s
blood. In 1820, when these sectional traitors had raised a storm
that threatened to engulph us, Kentucky, another " slave power,''*
gave us the immortal Clay, one of the " slave-oligarchy," who cast
oil on the troubled waters, and drove the hounds of discord back to
their kennels. These are some of the awful aggressions of the "slave
power."

" Oh, but their aggressions have been Territorial." Let us look at
that a moment. And, to understand this, matter properly, I ask you
to take up the map of our country. You will see that those of the
old thirteen States, which are now " free," make but a small speck
on that map. When our independence was achieved, not one foot
of that almost boundless region lying far away towards the setting
sun belonged to those " free States," or to either of them, and they
had no right or power to fix the destinies of any portion thereof
But that vast country, now constituting the great States of Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, which now, in their in-
fancy, have a larger white population than the whole fifteen slave
States together, belonged to Virginia, and was, every loot of it, slave
territory. The Federal government was poor, borne down with debt,
and crippled in its resources. Virginia came forward, with a gener-
osity that has no parallel in the history of the world, and laid this
magnificent territory, as a free offering, at the foot of the national
treasury. The slave States were greatly in the preponderance, and,
not anticipating this unholy crusade against her institutions, she dedi-

21

caled this territory forever to freedom. This is the first ^reat Territo-
rial "aggression of the slave power." And we of the Northwest are
indebted to a slave State, and not to Massachusetts abolitionism, for our
happy homes and free institutions.

Again, in 1803, as I have before stated, Louisiana Territory was
acquired from France. This acquisition embraced that vast country
between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, and extended from
the Gulf of Mexico, on the south, far away to the British possessions,
on the north. And every foot of this was slave territory, in which
slavery had already been established by law, and in which there were
already over forty thousand slaves. We bound ourselves, too, in our
treaty of purchase, to protect the people of the Territory in their reli-
gion and rights of property, and to admit them into the Union upon an
equality with the original States. But w^hen, in due course of time,
Missouri (carved out of this territory) came to the door of the Union,
with a constitution in compliance with the terms of the treaty, and the
Federal Constitution, she was indignantly spurned, and the North
would not receive her unless the people who were there would leave
with their slave property and agree never to return, and leave that
State as a home for the universal Yankee nation of the North. This
naturally aroused the indignation of the South, and raised the storm to
which I have before referred.

Missouri had an undoubted right, by virtue of said treaty and the
principles of the Constitution, to come into the Union without any re-
strictions whatever. But, for the sake of harmony, the South agreed
to have a black line drawn between the North and the South on the par-
allel of 36° 30', and that, in emigrating westward, they would never
go north of that line with their property.

And how much of this slave territory, in which slavery then existed
by law, do you think was thus surrendered by the South to the de-
mands of northern fanaticism? Look at the map again, and you w^ll
see that it embraces 750,000 square miles of territory — enough to
make thirteen States, each one of which would be larger than Illinois.
This is another of the " aggressions of the slave power."

When Oregon and Washington Territories were opened up to settle-
ment, and California, Utah, and New Mexico were acquired, the South
came forward and asked that the compromise line of 36° 30' should be
extended to the Pacific. This was time and again refused. And the
South then asked, not to reinstate the old laws establishing slavery,
but to go back to the principles of the constitution, take up the geo-
graphical hue which was unknown to that instrument, and to place the
people of every portion of the country upon a perfect equality in the
settlement of the Territories. This, and this alone, is what was done
by the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which has raised such a howl throughout
the country.

When the constitution was formed, the States were twelve slave and
one free. Now they are sixteen free to fifteen slave ; and the free
States now have a majority in both branches of Congress. And not-
withstanding the vast slave territories which, as 1 have shown, have
been surrendered by the South to freedom, not one foot of free soil has

22

ever, on any occasion, been given up to slavery; and, from the adop-
tion of the federal constitution to the present time, there has not even
been a bill offered in Ctjngress asking hr the extension of slavery, by
act of Congress, into free territory. This is a true history of this ter-
rible "aggression of the slave power," to resist which you and I are
asked to engage in this unholy crusade.

If we are really tired of the Union, and are determined to dissolve
this great partnership, let us, in common honesty, give back what we
have gained thereby — let us of the Northwest give back to old Vir-
ginia that great country in which we have built our homes, and where
we expect our bones to rest — let us give back that vast territory
stretching from the Missouri compromise line to the British possessions
on the north — let us no longer claim a part in the glory shed upon
our common country by the great names and noble achievt ments ot
Henry, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Clay, Calhoun, Ma-
rion, or Sumpter, or claim a right to visit their consecrated craves as
countrymen of ours — let us, as far as possible, place ourselves in the
position in which we would now be'if this confederacy had never been
formed, and we would soon see who has gained most by this " blood-
stained Union."

" SLAVE INSTITUTIONS."

I am, of course, no slave propagandist. I love the free homes, free
men, and free institutions of my own native State. God knows, I would
like to see the whole human race so elevated in intellect and morals as to
be capable of establishing and maintaining freedom and frt e govern-
ment ; but, in the present condition of the world, this is impossible.
The white man is infinitely above the black, intellectually and morally;
and yet the Anglo-Saxon is the only portion of the white race that has
proved himself capable of estabUshingand maintaining freedom. Others
have often boldly struck for and secured a momentary Kberty, but
they have been compelled almost immediately to resort to despotism
to escape the horrors of anarchy. The African is by far the lowest
type of the human race. In a state of independence, in his own home,
he has always been a heathen and a barbarian. In the long line of
ages from the creation to the present time, he has not advanced one
step towards rational government, civilization, or Christianity ; it is only
in a state of servitude thit he has been christianized and humanized.
I, of course, speak of the prominent fact, and not of particular excep-
tions. Notwithstanding the noble sacrifices and great expenditures of
money in the missionary cause, there is not one Bible to-day within
the interior of Africa, while four hundred thousand of her children in
America have been brought to the knowledge and embraced the glo-
rious hopes of Christianity. The African race has been benefited, and
not injured, by the institution of" slavery.

I will not undertake to imjuire why this is so. I cannot tell why
one man is created inferior in intellect to another, or why sin, and misery,
and death were permitted to enter this beautiful world of ours. " The
ways of the Almighty are inscrutable, and past finding out." He per-

23

raitted his own chosen people to remain four hundred years in bond-
age; and he has stamped inferiority, in plain and indelible characters,
upon the child of Africa. It is the decree of Heaven, and is irrt[)eal-
ableby man. Why should we engage in an unholy crusade after that
which it is impossible to attain? Why should we madly leap in the
very face of Heaven ? Shall we dash to the ground the cup of happi-
ness presented to us, because God has not created us all as perfect as
the angels around his throne? If we could to-morrow strike the bonds
from every slave in the South, we would inflict, even upon them, an
irreparable injury, and the consequences would be dreadful to our own
race. The accustomed restraints being suddenly removed, the negro
would immediately degenerate into crime and barbarism. He would
fill our prisons and our poor-houses ; he would be a curse to us and
himself. If slavery is, indeed, a sin, the freemen of Illinois are in no
way whatever responsible for it. Why should we, then, sacrifice the
liberty and happiness of our own race, and the best government on
earth, to secure the freedom of a people who could not maintain it?
Why try to anticipate Heaven? When the African is fit for freedom,
and deserves it, God will raise up a Moses to conduct them to their
land of Canaan. He will come, in his own good time, with " a cloud
by day and a pillar of fire by night," to lead them from bondage. I,
at all events, am willing to leave the solution of this great problem in
the hands of the Almighty, and would much rather trust Him for its
settlement than all the disunion- Abohtionists in the land.

DISUNION— WHAT IS IT ?

The time was when patriots with great propriety refused to calcu-
late the value of the Union. Now a consideration of it is forced upon
us. Under its benign influences, our growth and prosperity have been
extraordinary and unparalleled. "Every year of its duration has
teemed with fresh prootiof its utility, and its blessings ;" and with it
our prospects in ihe future are all that the heart of man can desire. But no
patriot, who has read the history of the past, can look the prospect of
disunion in the face without a shudder of soul- sickening horror. Those
who believe that these States can separate peacefully and without
blood-shed and civil war, have given very little consideration to the
history of our race. If we separate, it will be because feelings of
hatred have been engendered which are inconsistent with a state of
peace. If we cannot keep the peace under the high and holy sanctions
of the bonds made for us by our revolutionary fathers, what hope is
therefor us when those bonds are broken up and destroyed ? And
what will be the result of that war into which we must be precipitated?
The history of the past teaches us many important lessons on this
point ; but I will here refer to but one.

The people of the German States, two and a half centuries ago,
were living in peace and prosperity under a confederated government
similar to, but not so perfect as ours. They had no slave institutions
upon which demagogues could base their agitation to destroy the
hai'mony that existed; but bigotry supplied its place. Instead of

24

keeping religion and politics separate and distinct, and leaving every
man to worship his God according to the dictatf^s of hisown conscience,
they drew the sword, and engaged in one of the longest and bloodiest
wars of which we have any record, to determine whethf^r the Catholic
or the Protestant religion should be in the ascendant. Father against
son, and son against father; brother in deadly conflict with brother, on
an issue which God alone can or ought to determine, this unhappy
people engaged in wholesale butchery for the period of thirty long
years. They fought until the waters of their mighty rivers were crim-
soned with their blood. They fiiught until one whole generation was
swept from the face of the earth ; and still their children were found
marching to the fields of carnage. In their madness and insanity they
even fought on after they had forgotten the original cause of war; and
Catholic and Protestant were at last found, side by side, fighting
against Catholic and Protestant. They fought until even the genius of
desolation sickened at the sight, and wept over the barren hills and
depopulated plains of a once happy land. Religion and education
were abandoned and forgotten, and " this proud nation was changed
into a miserable rabble." Two-thirds of the entire nation perished in
this war. " In Saxony alone, 900,000 men were destroyed within
two years." " All the devils of political treachery, of religious fanati-
cism, of the rapacity of aspiring adventurers, and of the brutality of
the soldiery, were let loose on the people. Driven from hearth and
home, in eternal terror of the soldiers, and without instruction, what
could be expected from the growing generation, but sordid cowardice
and the shameless immorality which they had learned from the army ?
Even the last remains of political freedom perished in the war, since
all classes were plundered, and their strength exhausted. The early
civilization of Germany had retrograded into barbarism." Famine
raged in all its horrid ibrms. Children were devoured by parents, and
parents by children. Women engaged in mortal conflict with each
other to secure the starving infant for a meal. Many tore up bodies
from their graves, or sought the pits where horse-killers threw their
carcasses, for the carrion. All the resources of the country were so
completely exhausted, that even the wild beasts of the forests, de-
prived of their accustomed food, were found lying about exhausted and
dying. German}^, even to this day, has not fully recovered from the
effects of that dreadful war.

Such is a picture of the scenes into which mad fanaticism would
drive us. Such the feast for which we are invited to abandon our
present happy condition. What guarantee or hope have we that the
civil war into which these traitors would drive us will be less bloody,
or less devastating, than that of Germany ? If the descendants of the
puritan and the descendants of the cavaher in our country ever draw
the sword on each other, and throw away the scabbard, the bloodiest
page of history is yet to be recorded. Neither is formed for subjection,
and one can be the conqueror only when the other is exterminated. I
feel confident, my friends, that you at least wiU take no part in hasten-
ing this catastrophe.

25

THE HOPE OF THE COUNTRr.

The only hope of the country now is in the success of the Democratic
party. That party is of no mushroom growth. It was born with the
constitution ; came into power at the birth of the present century ; and
has conducted our people to unexampled prosperity. It hsip weathered
many a storm, and now occupies a prouder position than in any pre-
vious portion of its history. It has sloughed off the political lepers that
have been hnnging upon it, and has been invigorated by the best blood
of the old Whig party. The constitution has been assailed, and our
party has determined to live or die in defence of that work of our
fathers. Notwithstanding defection and desertion, it has held out no
hand of welcome either to fanaticism or religious bigotry ; but presents
a bold and defiant front to both. It is now confessedly the party of
the constitution and the Union, and, as such, nearly every one of the
National Whigs in the present Congress have buried their prejudices
and enlisted under its banners. Toombs and Stephens of Georgia,
Benjamin of Louisiana, Jones and Watkins of Tennessee, Caruthers
and Oliver of Missouri, Clingman of North Carolina, Pratt,
Bowie, and Stewart of Maryland, and hosts of other National Whigs
throughout the country, are now bravely doing battle for the constitu-
tion under the Democratic flag. Some who cherish national senti-
ments, I know, will be disposed to ask why not support Mr. Fillmore?
I cannot now enter into a discussion of the merits of the fragment of a
party which has nominated and presented him to the country, or of
his own polilical record. I am willing to concede that, for patriotism
and statesmanship as between himself and Fremont, there is no com-
parison that could do Mr. Fillmore more than justice. It would be
easy to prove that his election, if it were possible, although it might
postpone, would not crush out the treason that threatens us. But this
discussion is unnecessary. The election of Fillmore now is not only
improbable, but it is an utter impossibility. Those who assert the con-
trary, either have paid no attention to the political movements of the
day, or are trying wilfully to deceive you. The contest is between the
Black Reiiuhllcan and the Democratic parties, and every national man
who in this contest casts his vote for Fillmore, is, to say the least,
trifling with the most important trust ever reposed in the hands of
man.

THE CANDIDATES OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

In this important crisis, our party has come up to the expectations of
the country, in the selection of the best men and ablest statesmen as
our candidates. We have left no excuse to any man to dodge the
issues. James Buchanan, Pennsylvania's favorite son, if not the first,
confessedly ranks among the first of the statesmen of the age. Many
years ago, when there were intellectual giants in the United States
Senate, he stood among them the peer of the ablest. With a capacious
intellect, and a noble, generous heart j with forty years' experience in

26

the highest branches of the public service; with perfect familiarity
with the practical workings of every department of the government;
with a pubhc and private character witliout stain or reproach, no
better man for the times could possibly have been selected for the high
office for which his name is presented. His companion on the ticket
is one for whom the whole nation cherishes the highest hopes. His
gallant bearing and lofty genius have, more than that of any living
man, reminded the country of the early achievements of Kentucky's
former idol. Our State convention has been equally careful and fortu-
nate, in presenting as candidates our very best men. For governor, they
have called home from the national councils one of whom every HU-
noisan should feel proud — one whose patriotism and whose heart, not
confined by sectional lines, are large enough to embrace his whole
country. A gallant soldier, an able and experienced statesman, a truly
national man, there is not a liamlet in the whole nation — except where
sectional fanaticism has warped the judgment and corroded the hearl —
where the name of William A. Richardson is not mentioned with ap-
plause. Of his companions on the ticket, it is sufficient to say that
they are worthy of the position they occupy by his side. That our
candidates will be misrepresented, and slandered, and traduced, is to
be expected. But this is no more than happened to Washington and
JeffCiSon, and Madison and Jackson. They proved proof against the
assaults of the malignant partisan, and so will our candidates. With
such vital issues, and such standard-bearers, no man can mistake the
path of duty.

WOLVES IN SHEEPS' CLOTHING.

It will be our duty, in this crisis, to exercise more than our accus-
tomed energy and vigilance. We will have the enemy to combat in
every possible form. Chameleon-like, he changes his . color to suit
every shade of opinion; and, with treason in his heart, professes the
loftiest patriotism. There are among us men who still profess to ad-
here to the democratic party, and yet are doing everything in their
power to defame its principles and organization, and to blacken the
names of its noblest patriots — papers, with the names of our standard-
bearers at their heads, whose columns are filled, day after day, with
the vilest slanders and most unblushing falsehoods againstour candi-
dates and our party ; vipers, whom you have warmed into life, and fed
and fattened by your liberality, now, in the hour of danger, would turn
upon you and sting you to death. With less boldness and manhood
than their brothers, the tories of the Revolution, they do not go boldly
over to the enemy, but, as spies and traitors, hang around our camp,
and stab us in the hour of security. Judas-like, they embrace us, only
that they may, with the more certainty, betray us into the hands of the
enemy. Such conduct is too low for contempt. It is the very depth
of degradation and infamy. There is no perfidy that such creatures
would not stoop to, to accomplish their helhsli purposes. They should
be promptly met with the scorn and detestation of every honorable
mind.

27

Fellow-citizens, in this communication I have spoken plainly. I
would not willingly give offence to any upright citizen who may differ
with me in regard to the issues before the country ; but this is no time
for honeyed words, or doubtful phrases. I am under the highest obliga-
tions to you, and I regret that I have not more ability, by valuable
services, to repay your generous confidence. I should be unworthy of
that confidence, unworthy of the trust you have reposed in me, if I
should hesitate to speak out frankly upon these grave issues, for fear of
offending some of you.

I have now, in this respect, in an humble way discharged my duty.
Will you, laying aside all former party prejudices and differences, go to
the polls and discharge yours? There should be no divided vote in
the ninth congressional district. I know you all love this free and
happy country of ours. Let us all, then, go to the polls, and, with one
unanimous voice, give a rebuke to this treason and fanaticism that may
be heard throughout the whole country, and attract the attention of the
world. Our government cannot live under this continued agitation. It
is not enough that we defeat these traitors — we must crush them out, and
destroy their ho'pes forever, if we would save our country.

In conclusion, fellow-citizens, I invoke you, by the memories of the
past ; by the bright hopes of the future ; by the sacrifices that were
made, and the blood that was spilt during our revolutionary struggle.;
by the holy claims of oppressed nations, and of unborn generations ;
by the love we all bear to our common country, to go to the polls, one
and all, and discharge your whole duty. Let no consideration ke-ep
you away ; and let your rallying-cry be : " the constitution and the
UNION — they must, and shall be preservcd.^^

Your obedient servant,

S. S. MARSHALL.

Washington City, August 4, 1S56.

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